Search results for " Structure"
showing 10 items of 25475 documents
Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation
2015
Studies of animal behavior consistently demonstrate that the social environment impacts cooperation, yet the effect of social dynamics has been largely excluded from studies of human cooperation. Here, we introduce a novel approach inspired by nonhuman primate research to address how social hierarchies impact human cooperation. Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was achieved if the combined investments exceeded a threshold, and the higher ranked individual distributed the spoils unless control was contested by the partner. Compared to a condition lacking hierarchy, c…
Medicinal mushrooms: Valuable biological resources of high exploitation potential
2017
Higher Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes mushrooms possess various immunological and anticancer properties. They also offer important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiallergic, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive activities. This minireview summarizes the perspectives, recent advances, and major challenges of medicinal mushrooms with reference to their nutraceutical properties and dietary value, the production of mushroom biomass …
Evaluation of chloroplast genome annotation tools and application to analysis of the evolution of coffee species.
2018
International audience; Chloroplast sequences are widely used for phylogenetic analysis due to their high degree of conservation in plants. Whole chloroplast genomes can now be readily obtained for plant species using new sequencing methods, giving invaluable data for plant evolution However new annotation methods are required for the efficient analysis of this data to deliver high quality phylogenetic analyses. In this study, the two main tools for chloroplast genome annotation were compared. More consistent detection and annotation of genes were produced with GeSeq when compared to the currently used Dogma. This suggests that the annotation of most of the previously annotated chloroplast …
Marine protected areas rescue a sexually selected trait in European lobster
2020
Abstract Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly implemented worldwide to maintain and restore depleted populations. However, despite our knowledge on the myriad of positive responses to protection, there are few empirical studies on the ability to conserve species’ mating patterns and secondary sexual traits. In male European lobsters (Homarus gammarus), the size of claws relative to body size correlates positively with male mating success and is presumably under sexual selection. At the same time, an intensive trap fishery exerts selection against large claws in males. MPAs could therefore be expected to resolve these conflicting selective pressures and preserve males with large cl…
Comparative Mitogenomics of Leeches (Annelida: Clitellata): Genome Conservation and Placobdella-Specific trnD Gene Duplication.
2015
Mitochondrial DNA sequences, often in combination with nuclear markers and morphological data, are frequently used to unravel the phylogenetic relationships, population dynamics and biogeographic histories of a plethora of organisms. The information provided by examining complete mitochondrial genomes also enables investigation of other evolutionary events such as gene rearrangements, gene duplication and gene loss. Despite efforts to generate information to represent most of the currently recognized groups, some taxa are underrepresented in mitochondrial genomic databases. One such group is leeches (Annelida: Hirudinea: Clitellata). Herein, we expand our knowledge concerning leech mitochon…
Conservation of the endangered Mediterranean tortoise Testudo hermanni hermanni: The contribution of population genetics and historical demography
2016
International audience; Estimating the genetic variation and demographic trends of species in decline is of major concern in conservation genetics. This study contributes to understanding how historical and anthropogenic factors shape the distribution of current genetic diversity in one of the most endangered reptiles in Western Europe, the Hermann's tortoise Testudo hermanni hermanni. We used 17 microsatellite loci, chosen from a pyrosequencing library specifically developed for the subspecies to genotype eight populations distributed over about 30 sample localities covering almost the entire geographic distribution of the sub-species. The population genetic results reflect a very strong g…
Corncrake conservation genetics at a European scale: the impact of biogeographical and anthropological processes
2016
Abstract Understanding patterns of genetic structure, gene flow and diversity across a species range is required to determine the genetic status and viability of small peripheral populations. This is especially crucial in species distributed across a large range where spatial heterogeneity makes it difficult to predict the distribution of genetic diversity. Although biogeographical models provide expectations of how spatially structured genetic variation may be at the range scale, human disturbance may cause strong deviations from these theoretical predictions. In this study, we investigated genetic structure and demography at a pan-European scale in the corncrake Crex crex , a grassland bi…
Evolution of bacterial life-history traits is sensitive to community structure
2016
Very few studies have experimentally assessed the evolutionary effects of species interactions within the same trophic level. Here we show that when Serratia marcescens evolve in multispecies communities, their growth rate exceeds the growth rate of the bacteria that evolved alone, whereas the biomass yield gets lower. In addition to the community effects per se, we found that few species in the communities caused strong effects on S. marcescens evolution. The results indicate that evolutionary responses (of a focal species) are different in communities, compared to species evolving alone. Moreover, selection can lead to very different outcomes depending on the community structure. Such con…
High-throughput 18K SNP array to assess genetic variability of the main grapevine cultivars from Sicily
2016
The viticulture of Sicily, for its vocation, is one of the most important and ancient forms in Italy. Autochthonous grapevine cultivars, many of which known throughout the world, have always been cultivated in the island from many centuries. With the aim to preserve this large grapevine diversity, previous studies have already started to assess the genetic variability among the Sicilian cultivars by using morphological and microsatellite markers. In this study, simple sequence repeat (SSR) were utilized to verify the true-to-typeness of a large clone collection (101) belonging to 21 biotypes of the most 10 cultivated Sicilian cultivars. Afterwards, 42 Organization Internationale de la Vigne…
High and uneven levels of 45S rDNA site-number variation across wild populations of a diploid plant genus (Anacyclus, Asteraceae)
2017
The nuclear genome harbours hundreds to several thousand copies of ribosomal DNA. Despite their essential role in cellular ribogenesis few studies have addressed intrapopulation, interpopulation and interspecific levels of rDNA variability in wild plants. Some studies have assessed the extent of rDNA variation at the sequence and copy-number level with large sampling in several species. However, comparable studies on rDNA site number variation in plants, assessed with extensive hierarchical sampling at several levels (individuals, populations, species) are lacking. In exploring the possible causes for ribosomal loci dynamism, we have used the diploid genus Anacyclus (Asteraceae) as a suitab…